The open sicilian with white is only as theoretica demandningl as white wants it to be. Najdorf with Bg5 is probebly the most heavy analysed opening all categorys! But on the other hand black must also know he stuff very deep too in order to surive! 

Since this thread had been created there has been yet an other book realised called "Modernized the Open Sicilian". I have not yet had time to read it yet so I can not give any review yet but it looks interesting at first sight.

That is rare jo. I did the opposite. I switched 1. e4 to 1. d4 because I was getting destroyed 1. e4, and my Open Sicilian score as White in the last pair of years of playing 1. e4 were so disastrous that I was losing not only to around my level (around 2300) but also below, to 2100s.

I must warn that when getting to 2200+ Sicilian players usually know what they are doing. Even if I was prepared, what happened was that I could easily be destroyed by move 25 even 20. I played a 2350 who is now a 2400+ IM in an Open Sicilian as my last 1. e4 Sicilian game as White and my opponent plastered me to a position where I was losing very badly (-11 by move 26). What scared me is that my opponent, should I remember well, used less than half an hour for the entire game, but I used more than an hour.

If you want comparison, just look at Negi's books. He wrote just one book on playing 6. Bg5 against the Najdorf. And many of the lines going past move 35, some into deep endgame analyses.

Pingudon wrote on 01/21/14 at 13:44:11:


Sorry I wrote the wrong title. It is called "Slay the Sicilian" and nothing else. The book is written by Taylor.

He plays d4 vs e6, d6 and g6 but against Nc6 he plays Nc3 and  if then Nf6 Bb5 and not d4 since he wants ro rule out Svechnikov.
Is has also the effect that he also plays Be2 vs Classical (via a d6 move order) like vs alla other open sicilian variations

He is a bit overoptemistic in somelines but is still the best Be2 book.

I like 

1) Kopec: Mastering the Sicilian 

This is an overview  other the Sicilian Defence based on pawn-structures. 
Most coverage  by far get  the Open Sicilians. 

2) Emms: Starting Out. The Sicilian

Again the main focus is on the Open Sicilians.

Excellent example Kylemeister; it shows that the book is still relevant today, even in chess at the highest level.  

The Open Sicilian chapter is the largest and best of the book.  In the old McKay edition it spans pages 66 to 154.  And there's no clutter with excessive prose or variations, it's all highly focused, very instructive material.

Pawn Structure Chess is, in my opinion, the best single-volume opening/middlegame "how to play these kinds of positions" manual.  My only real complaint is that it isn't bigger.

You need to understand these things to become a strong player.  You can pick up everything from other places--for instance, McDonald's Mastering the French with the Read and Play Method is outstanding--but you'd need multiple other opening books to piece together all of the material you get in Soltis's.  

Additionally, the fact that it's a single volume is a blessing in many ways.  It's very concisely and clearly written, no extraneous material or excessive prose, and everything is very accessible to a club player.  It's an excellent foundation that you can build on with more specialized knowledge (theory) later.  It rewards deeper investigation as well, as the annotations are sparse but spot-on, and I've learned a lot by asking myself, "Why didn't Spassky put his rook here instead of here if he's planning on pushing d4-d5?", for instance.

Lastly, when you're playing people rated below 2200 all the time (which is almost everyone who posts here), you'll find that the games and variations in Soltis's book are far more relevant to you than most dedicated opening manuals.  Here's an example, the most recent rated Open Sicilian game I played:





etc, etc; I won on move 59.  

Here's another game where we leave "theory" early on but the game is interesting:



White mixed his plans and tried to do a little bit too much...he's actually quite a good attacker/tactician/hacker, but since he didn't understand how to handle the central pawns, he never had the chance to demonstrate that in this game.

Both sides had interesting and arguably better alternatives earlier in both of those games, but my point is that you aren't going to learn how to play against all of this random (but perfectly reasonable) stuff that people throw at you in most opening manuals. 

kylemeister wrote on 10/27/13 at 00:44:27:


It's well possible that it was Black's first time playing this variation. So we were on equal grounds.
Thanks for the hint with the Nunn - Nataf game. I think it I have seen it somewhere before but wouldn't have remembered. Probably that is what black wished for.

ErictheRed wrote on 10/27/13 at 02:18:32:


Just reading through the sample pages on amazon, I think this looks fantastic. Probably not only good for playing open sicilians but for general chess education which is probably even more important. What I can't see from the sample pages: How many pages are devoted to the pawn structures (roughly not exact numbers), more like 5 or more like 50? I actuall enjoy having information in small bites so it's possible to digest for mediocre amateurs like me.

I'm inclined to guess that (1) that was Black's first time playing the variation and (2) he saw the Nunn-Nataf game somewhere ...

Pale Horse, Pale Rider wrote on 06/09/13 at 10:20:10:

Bologan Chessbase DVD series on open Sicilian is probably close to what you describe.  Seems pretty good to me based on the samples.